It is widely known that a critical need exists for better protection of the knees of athletes, particularly football players. In the professional football ranks alone, knee injuries continue to end or shorten the careers of some of the highest paid athletes, thereby causing great economic loss to these individuals and their employers, not to speak of personal suffering and the sometimes crippling results of such injuries. Serious knee surgery on football players is now an every day matter in the hospitals of the country.
The problem has been recognized for quite some time and has been unsuccessfully dealt with by the use of various forms of knee padding, elastic knee bands, and the like, and in some instances very awkward and inefficient brace structures which not only tend to immobilize the knee and limit its use but are very dangerous to others coming in bodily contact with the wearer of the brace. Such prior art devices are heavy and awkward as well as dangerous.
Up to the present time, there is no known knee protector which comes close to satisfying the desires of the athletes or the orthopedic docotrs who care for them. In short, the technology in the design and manufacturing of the protectors has not kept abreast of the up-to-date knowledge concerning knee injuries, the functioning of the knee joint and its inherent weaknesses, particularly against lateral forces or impacts. The physicians and the athletes involved may have a vague idea of what they need to protect the knee against these injuries, but thus far no protector has been devised or been made available to do the job. Accordingly, it is the object of the invention to provide such a protector for the knee which is based on scientific analysis of the injuryprone knee joint, its weaknesses and strengths, and the need for adequate protection of the joint with minimum loss of mobility and comfort. It is known that the knee could be perfectly protected from injury by enclosing it in a rigid cast to completely immobilize it but such protection would obviously be of no benefit to athletes, such as football players, whose success in the sport depends almost entirely on speed and mobility.